Takeaway Truth: McDonald's 'M Selections' Chicken Schnitzel Rolls

Takeaway Truth is an occasional Lifehacker feature where we compare marketing images against what you actually get served. Today: The McDonald's Chicken Schnitzel & Citrus Mayo Roll and Chicken Schnitzel & BBQ Roll.

Fast food restaurants have been known to gild the lily when it comes to accurate depictions of their menu items. Far too often, the mouth-watering feast on the poster turns out to be a limp and oily morsel. In a bid to keep the fry-jockey overlords honest, we've decided to document the reality of fast food -- it was either that, or go postal like Michael Douglas in Falling Down.

The McDonald's 'M Selections' are a range of premium burgers advertised under the slogan: "it’s a little bit fancy". The cute phrasing appeals to blue-collar customers while simultaneously not over-promising on quality (i.e. -- it's only a little bit fancy.) Well played, marketing dudes.

The Chicken Schnitzel & BBQ Roll substitutes the mayo and carrot for southern–style BBQ sauce and Swiss Cheese. Otherwise, both burgers are much the same.

The Chicken Schnitzel & BBQ Roll packs in a generous 3040kJ of energy along with 1580mg of sodium and 11.2g of sugar (and that's just for the burger). The Chicken Schnitzel & Citrus Mayo Roll is slightly healthier: it has 3010kJ of energy, 4.4 grams of sugar and 1370mg of sodium.

By contrast, a Big Mac has 2060kJ of energy, 5.9g of sugars and 859mg of sodium. They're not particularly healthy, in other words. Check out the official video for the new products below.

McDonald's has really lifted its game when it comes to the way it packages its products. Like the French Toast Fingers, the 'M Selections' Chicken Schnitzel Rolls are enclosed in an inviting box that actually does look 'fancy'. Check it out:

But we're not here to judge the packaging. As the old adage goes; it's what's inside that counts. Here's the McDonald's McDonald's 'M Selections' Chicken Schnitzel Rolls look like on the poster:

And here's what we were served from a Blaxland outlet in NSW:

For once, the assembly process actually isn't too terrible -- apart from some sloppily applied mayo that caused some spillage, the results are much neater than the typical McDonald's fare. We guess it must be easier to work with sourdough rolls than hamburger buns.

The size ratios of the bread and schnitzel also seem to match up fairly well. Our only reservation is that the onion is a lot larger and thicker in the real photo but that's a relatively small quibble.

All in all, the McDonald's store we visited did a reasonable job of making the 'M Selections' Chicken Schnitzel Rolls look like the product on the poster. If you feel like a Schnitzel for lunch, you won't be disappointed.

Truth rating: 7/10

Comments

Jayd Guest

Mar 20, 2014, 12:29pm

1,580mg of sodium! That's amazingly high for what looks to be a small sandwich.

To put it in perspective, Australia's National Health and Medical Research Council has set an 'Adequate Intake' of 460–920 mg of sodium per day with a suggested limit of 1,600mg.

One of these babies pretty much doubles their upper Adequate limit and is right smack on the most you should eat to stay healthy.

In other words. One schnitzel, no chips, nothing else all day, and you won't go over 1,600mg.

They're actually a fair bit bigger than they look in the picture. On a per-100g basis the sodium is actually pretty close to the Big Mac (474mg/100g for the schnitzel burger and 427mg/100g for the Big Mac). But yes, on a per-serve basis, that sodium is ridiculously high.

that's terribly low for anyone to be on 1.6g sodium per day. 3G a day is optimal. and no salt doesnt cause hypertension. your head wont pop off if u up your sodium!. the type of salt matters as well. synthetic sodium chloride is not the same as natural salt from say mines ect. there are trace minerals in real salt that are amazing for the body. ppl need to focus on potassium most ppl barely get 1G of potassium a day. when they need at least 2.5 times the amount of sodium they intake

See, Jayd posted sources— I should be inclined to believe her over you simply due to that. Maybe if you could update your post with something more compelling, as well as some better sentence structure.

Why exactly are you giving medical advice when you have no references or experimental data to back this up? It is dangerous for the general public. Sodium in fact does increase blood pressure (i.e. cause hypertension) by moving more water back into the body through the RAAS (wiki it!). Potassium is mostly in the cells with only about 4 mmol in the blood stream compared to 140 mmol for sodium, and does not that influence much on the blood pressure. It can however cause cardiac arrhythmias in extremely high or low levels in the blood stream.

The previously referenced recommended guidelines can be found at http://www.nrv.gov.au/nutrients/sodium.htm, maybe you should have a read and give yourself some education while you're at it.

If you want a proper Chicken Schnitzel Roll, go to a little town called Bunyip, and get one from the corner milk bar / fast food / general store. $8.50 (last time i had one, anyway), with all the usuals, a huge schnitzel, egg, beetroot, and onion. Everytime i buy a chicken schnitzel roll from somewhere, i find myself comparing it to one of these bad boys, and nothing has ever come close. I haven't had a McDonalds one, but i know i won't..

While those do sound delightful, it's a bit of a trek especially since I'm in Brisbane. There is a local Bakery that does a nice Schnitzel, Cheese and Bacon Roll. But you have to get there early or they sell out.

Tried one, tasted basically the same as McChicken Burger. The patty is a bit longer to fit the bread. Not really worth the High price, as @Utetopia2013 says, you can get way better schnitzel burgers anywhere else for the same price or cheaper.
And my local McDonald's isn't any quicker than a take away...

Yeah, each account has a little name with an @ next to the display name (if you look at mine it says JaJaBinks2, then has a fainter @jajabinks2 next to it).
Just put that smaller name in you post and it will tag the person, and send them a notification (unless it's an edit)

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